One of the things that haven’t been thought of by banking industry (and developer) is application for customer’s financial activities. Several bigger banks provide m-banking (via SMS) and internet banking (plus its mobile version) service, but to complement the available function, there should be banking application – for Blackberry and iPhone platform, for example – as solution.
Previously I found out that there’s an application developed by PermataBank in Blackberry platform. Unfortunately, the application is “a pseudo one”. Each transaction conducted with it will be sent through SMS, not thorough data connection. Which means this application is some kind of launcher for m-banking via SMS activity. Resulting every activity or transaction will be deducted from phone’s credit, and will happen fast, because such special SMS will be charged Rp. 500 per SMS sent.
Smartfren, combination between Smart Telecom and Mobile-8 (Fren), start to bridge this gap by launching Smartfren Mobileplay. Collaborates with Bank Sinarmas, one of its sister companies, they provide Blackberry application which can be used for two important activities, credit refill and sending credit to fellow Smartfren users, also banking activity in Bank Sinarmas namely balance checking, checking history of the last three transactions, and fund transfer to fellow users of MobilePay (Bank Sinarmas). This application also accommodate phone credit seller.
Smartfren users can point their Blackberry users to http://mobilepay.smartfren.com/bb/. Step-by-step manual is available here. Make sure you have Rp 5.000 credit at least after transaction if you want to send credit. This application is available for handset model Tour 9630, Curve with OS 4.5 and 5.0, and Storm 9530 (and 9550). Setting menu is also available in the application to change PIN, reset PIN, language choice, and password reset.
Other bank users may expect to have similar application available on their smart phone platform, but seems unlikely to be in the near future. One advice on the development is that in the future it can also accommodate other transactions such as electric, water, telephone, credit card bill payment, and other banking transaction.
Indeed it is somewhat unfortunate that in some neighboring countries such banking applications are quite popular. Do you think the banks need to create banking application for financial activity or m-banking via SMS is suitable enough?
Translated by: Nita Sellya.
Sayangnya kenapa buat Bank Sinarmas? Will the apps be extendable to other banks?
I think it will be just a matter of one or two years before another big bank starts a true mobile banking app. I’m glad smart is starting it though, even if only with a small bank. Helps pushes everyone to start thinking about it.
There is always the question of security. FYI Citibank has an iPhone App here in the US. About a year ago, a loophole was discovered -you could see the password & transaction being sent using some kind of encryption device. Since then I’ve only used it to check my accounts, not to withdraw/transfer.
But anyways, Citibank doesn’t have 2FA yet here.
For Smart Telecom, Bank Sinarmas is their sister company, so it’s easier to setup this kind of thing. Dunno about why any other local bank hasn’t created such thing. If telco ops want to create something like mobile wallet, BI regulation requires them to cooperate with banks, which makes thing complicated
Just an awesome news in the financial world that the Smart Telecom and Mobile-8 (Fren) have joined hands to create and deploy a mobile wallet application. Customers are expecting more and more advancement in the mobile banking application area so that transaction through the mobile will become more convenient, beneficial and safest way to them. I know about the another brilliant application named as UCCU which allows users to do each and every transaction in a proper way at anytime and anywhere. I really liked this post having a lot useful informatoin.